I had an R58...... Get the L-I, much better in cup taste and the drip tray situation is far superior on the L-I. Less to go wrong with one boiler as opposed to 2 boilers in the R58.

I went from a Rancilio Silvia, to an R-58, dumped the R58 in favor of a LaMarzocco GS/3 and at the same time bought an L-I. Settled on the L-I and sold the GS/3. Long story but the end result is less fuss, better brew and no noise!

L-I works well and if you have the ability to plumb it in AND have 220v then the L-I would be up close to the Bosco 1 Group in a smaller package.

Whats up with that thread on HB though talking about the L-1 being unstable, (temps, consistency etc). Tried reading through it but was confusing as heck trying to decipher what their talking about lol.

Whats up with that thread on HB though talking about the L-1 being unstable, (temps, consistency etc). Tried reading through it but was confusing as heck trying to decipher what their talking about lol.

There are a few guys who really like to rip things apart to try to get something to fail to finds it's weak points.

For me it is all about taste in the cup. If it tastes fine then don't mess with it, that's my motto :-) Can I get the machine to stop producing shots, sure I can, but I have to work at it! If I use the machine for my home and produce drinks at a normal pace then all is fine, but if I were to try and compete with commercial machines then I would need more power. If I was looking for absolute temperature control (forget the taste) then I would have kept the GS/3 and watched the PID keeping the temps all very stable.

It took a lot of fiddling around with pressures and temperatures to get the LaMarzocco GS/3 to produce a great shot, and yes, it could indeed produce a great shot once dialed in, but it needed mods to make it really shine. The fellow I sold it to put the Strada Group mods on it and it is a fantastic machine, I just did not want to fiddle around with it. I also thought I could better use the $$$ to take my coffee adventure further with a roaster and a new lathe for making coffee accessories. I have done both with the sale the the GS/3.

The L-I is a nice machine, and with the 220v option and the plumb in option it would compete with the Bosco commercial 1 Group machine IMHO, just a smaller foot print on the counter and shorter in profile.

Try a true Spring Lever machine without pumps, like a Bosco or a Victoria Arduino, and think about that flavor they produce. Also pay attention to the grinders used in conjunction with those machines. Are they using a Mazzer, or whatever manufacturer, Flat Burr or a Conical?

It is all about the taste, unless of course you just want black and strong and flavor is not a consideration.

When I had a Rancilio Silvia and upgraded my Rocky grinder to a Versalab I was amazed at the difference, and all I did was change grinders. Since then I have spent more on grinders than espresso machines and the flavors are very noticeable.

And I thank them for it -- now it's even more likely to be mano than macchina when I pull a bad shot :)

CMIN Said:

Whats up with that thread on HB though talking about the L-1 being unstable, (temps, consistency etc). Tried reading through it but was confusing as heck trying to decipher what their talking about lol.

tl;dr, Community contributions have resulted in the addition of a part (check valve) to the L1 that makes the thermal stability is even better, and it was already pretty good! No extra machine magic or fiddling per-shot needed.

~~Here's my recap/understanding: Andy Schecter indicated he was able to get shots that compared favorably to his tweaked Speedster, but it seemed less consistent than he expected/hoped. He found that the system for maintaining the group temperature (thermosyphon, or TS) was sometimes "stalling" which led to group temperature drops and poor extractions ("cold"). This was confirmed with temperature monitoring. Eric Svendsen reproduced the findings. Some members of HB were able to induce similar failures by explicitly introducing air into the TS and then showed that they could do extensive "bleeding" of the TS to return their system to normalcy.

Andy and Eric kept at it with some background (undocumented/lightly mentioned) communication with Reiss. The result was the addition of a check valve to one of the TS tubes. The check valve avoids backflow of air into the system which avoids the TS stall. Eric and Andy seemed to have confirmed that the addition of the check valve removed the variability from their setup. Eric posted some very nice looking graphs showing really nice thermal performance. ~~

I'm excited because the L1 really upped my espresso quality and consistency with less work/fiddling from me than I was putting in before. It seems like once I get a check valve, it will be even more consistent which is pretty exciting given how great it's been so far!

Coffeenoobie Said:

I agree, the L-1 has less stuff to go wrong and very little that needs replacing due to wear. The taste in the cup for the price can't be beat so far.

The import taxes are the unknown from my experience. I paid $79 US to the government/DHL Freight for the Taxes.

I am guessing that the Izzo is a nice double boiler pump machine and in some ways, like tea water and unlimited steam it might be better than the L-I, BUT the taste in the cup is what sold me on the L-I. I was willing to give up the Tea Water for great tasting espresso, so I sold my GS/3. Yes, it is a different machine from the Izzo and if you want to just flip a switch and pump large volumes of brew into a cup then maybe a pump machine is the way to go. I would suggest going to a cafe' or someone's home (preferably an amenable HB contributor) that has a good plumbed in Spring Lever Machine that does not require a pump, like a Bosco, and then listen to the sounds, or lack there of, and taste the brew. If you could see, feel, listen and taste the product that sure would help your decision; I got to try a Bosco 3 Group at a Cafe' where they let me prep the shot and pull the lever. I was hooked :-]

The only clunking noise I get is when the boiler is filling and the home water supply (Mains) is being controlled by the solenoid. The P-STAT is very quiet although you can hear a slight clunk when the boiler gets up to pressure. The boiler elements, while heating the water, make more noise. My hand crank grinders make way more noise.

As a Canadian you would expect to pay $350-$400 (basically 13% HST plus $10 DHL brokerage) depends on the price and exchange rate.I went from Brewtus III to Londinium and all I can say: better espresso (to me) and more consistency with less effort. "Click-Clank" P-stat sound is present, but "annoying" is very individual thing. For me a ticking sound of my wall clock is annoying, everyone else in the household has no problems with that.

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